Hard Charging Narrabeen Legend Scores Australian Slab

In some parts of the world, Nathan “The Hog” Hedge needs no introduction. At age 45, the powerful goofyfoot is one of the best surfers to come out of Narrabeen, the suburb north of Sydney. By 2005 he was a top 10 surfer on the ASP World Tour. But the Hog is also a dog at Teahupo’o, one of his favorite waves. He’s received three Championship Tour wildcards into the event (2013, 2014 and 2022). It was the latter year that Hedge went on a rampage. The then-43-year-old was a clear standout in his 5th-place finish, handling beating Filipe Toledo and then edging out Jack Robinson in pumping conditions along the way.

It wasn’t easy, however, for Hedge to get here. In his youth, Hedge was known to enjoy the occasional bender. In 2009 he retired from professional surfing and it took several rehab stints to get sober. In transitioning out of the industry he grew up in, Hedge had to look elsewhere for employment. He left his hometown and worked on a wharf at Port Kembla on the south coast of New South Wales. He later unloaded containers out of a port in Sydney. After that, got a gig at a pub in Pottsville, a small town in northern NSW.

Those blue-collar jobs helped Hedge appreciate the time he did get in the water. And by going up and down the east coast of Australia, he’s worked his way into lineups big and small, from behind the rock at Snapper to this undisclosed left slab. As for how he’s surfing these days, we’ll let the Hog take it from here.